accent and dialect

Cockney

Cockney is probably the second most famous British accent. It originated in the East End of London, but shares many features with and influences other dialects in that region.
Features:

• Raised vowel in words like trap and cat so these sounds like “trep” and “cet.”
• Non-rhoticity: see explanation above under Received Pronunciation, above.
• Trap-bath split: see explanation above under Received Pronunciation.
• London vowel shift: The vowel sounds are shifted around so that Cockney “day” sounds is pronounced IPA dæɪ (close to American “die”) and Cockney buy verges near IPA bɒɪ (close to American “boy”).
• Glottal Stopping: the letter t is pronounced with the back of the throat (glottis) in between vowels; hence better becomes IPA be?ə (sounds to outsiders like “be’uh”).
• L-vocalization: The l at the end of words often becomes a vowel sound Hence pal can seem to sound like “pow.” (I’ve seen this rendered in IPA as /w/, /o,/ and /ɰ/.)
• Th-Fronting: The th in words like think or this is pronounced with a more forward consonant depending on the word: thing becomes “fing,” this becomes “dis,” and mother becomes “muhvah.”

English essay

The piece we studied has clear audience. The audience is people of the local community in bishops Waltham. This is easy to tell because they open the piece with ‘dear resident’. The purpose of the piece is also very clear with the heading, ‘Times running out… write a letter today’. They want the local residents to write a letter before they run out of time. The layout of the piece is confusing because it is a leaflet, written as a letter. This make the reader feel the leaflet is directed straight at them and that they need to write a letter to save their community. There is also bubbles around the outside that give it the piece the leaflet effect, along with the headline of the piece.

Graphology is used quite a lot in this peace, with all the logos, boxes, titles and fonts. Starting with the logos in the bottom left corner there is a logo saying ‘love Bishops Waltham’ inside a heart. This tells the reader they care about their local community and that they want the best fort the area. The main logo is in the top left, this makes the piece more professional. The main headline is in a basic font and large letters. This makes it stand out on the page with the first thing people see. This makes them want to know what time is running out for so they read on. The main text is in a basic font and looks professional like a formal letter. The text in the boxes on the outside is more to catch the reader’s attention. They put the most important information in the boxes as the readers are most likely to read that. The image in the main heading is of a clock that is almost out of time suggesting that they have minimal time left.

The discourse structure is simple in the letter/leaflet; the layout starts with a big box with bold writing in it telling the reader all they need to know to catch their attention. This writing is standing out suggesting the text will to. The text starts out like a letter but then breaks down into an article layout with two columns. There is one bold headline that is an interrogative sentence. ‘is it a chance worth taking?’ this is asking the reader if they want to take the chance. Leaving the reader with the question, what is the chance?  Each different piece of the text has its own headline suggesting it is all important. There are a lot of imperative sentence types, the headline being one of them. ‘Write a letter today’.

Finally I’ll be focusing on the grammar, which isn’t too hard to find. They use 2^nd person pronouns very well to make the reader fill guilty like they have to write a letter. They need to save their local community. The 2^nd person pronouns make them think about how it’s all up to them. They use imperative verbs telling the reader what to do and how they need to write a letter to the council.

 

English homework

‘To let someone go’ this could mean that someone gets fired, or when someone is no longer in your life and you need to get over them. It is usually used when in a personal conversation and you are upset or angry.

‘Friendly fire’ this means someone has been killed or injured by their own team/army. The word friendly tells us that it wasn’t done on purpose and it was an accident. When people are told about friendly fie they picture a misfire and the injured person is being treated with the best care possible and given full support. It hides the stupidity of the person or people that hurt their friend or friends.

‘Senior citizen’ this word is used to describe the elderly and is a much more formal way than saying ‘old person’. The word citizen makes them seem like they are really friendly and support the community.

 Connotations-

 Boy, man, gentleman, male, lad

The word boy is usually used by the older generation or when someone is immature and childish. It isn’t used a lot in society except when describing someone; even then you wouldn’t really use the word. The word lad is more common now and used instead of boy. The word lad has different meanings, one being a boy, another used by the younger generation to describe someone who has done something that gets people’s attention. The word gentleman is what people see as being the best. ‘He’s a true gentleman’. Male is mainly used when giving a description of a person. ‘He is male’ 

English Notes

An intro into English language

 

Adjectives-modify a noun

Noun-name

Adverb-modify a a verb

Verb-doing word

Pro noun-I, you, he, she

Simile- comparison of one thing with another

Amy arrived (noun,verb)

 

My friend Amy arrived early so we went straight to the beach.

(Determinator, noun, noun, verb, adverb, conjunction, pro noun, verb, adverb, preposition, determinator, adjective, noun)

 

Common noun- a name that can be proceeded by the word ‘the’ and that represents all members of a class. River, town, women.

Proper noun- names for unique individuals, events or places.

Concrete noun- a noun that requires on of our senses.

Abstract noun- a noun that names an idea or a concept. Courage, freedom, love.

Collective nouns- refers to a group of things or people. A swarm of bees, murder of crows.

Noun phrase- made up of a noun and any words that modify that noun. Goat= the goat, the hungry goat, the hungry goat in the field.

 

Nouns part II

 

Whenever you modify a noun this becomes a noun phrase. Essentially you have changed the meaning of the noun in some way. We see this is newspapers a great deal.

The plane crash, a horrific plane crash, the most horrific plane crash ever.

How do nouns make a difference to a piece of writing?

Lexical cohesion, can also paint a picture/describe, create an emotional response.

 

Adjectives

 

The weary painter took off his blue, green and white overalls and ate a day old Chinese meal because he felt ravenous.

 

Adjectives are words or phrases that modify or describe nouns and or nouns.

Function: evaluate, emotive, and descriptive

 

Verbs

 

Main verbs tell you the action which is taking place;sing;jump;gave.

Auxiliary verbs give extra information about the main verb; can effect the meaning.

Primary auxiliaries (Do, have and be) distinguished tense model auxiliaries (can, could, will, would, must, may, might, shall, should) show possibility or necessity

 

Deontic verbs- must, will, can

Epistemic- may, might

 

Imperative is a command

 

Verb phrase is built around a head word the main verb.

Model auxiliaries can be placed along a continuum to show degrees of strength towards commitment.

Past tense- base form + -s inflection (sings)

Past tense- base form + -ed inflection (jumped)

Future tense-model auxiliary: will or shall + base form will sing.

 

Clauses and voice

 

Active voice: the police arrested the suspect!

Passive voice: the suspect was arrested by the police!

 

A clause is in the same that words from phrases form larger structure called clauses. These are groups of words centred around a verb phrase.

A clause will include- the subject (key focuses) the verb (includes adverbs and auxiliaries) the object.

 

Coordinated clauses are when two clauses are joined together by using a conjunction (and, but, furthermore)

 

Sentence type: simple, complex, compound.

Subordinate clause- there will be a main clause and phrases that only make sense with the main clause first

 

Active voice where the verb is placed first usually

Beastly fox hurts baby

The directs attention to the fox

 

Passive voice we don't know the subject, we don't want to talk about the subject, the subject is not the focus of the story.

 

Passive: 500 killed in storm, 500 killed

Active: Storm kills 500 people